Over the past 15 years, cities, amusement parks, hotels, and other facilities catering to family recreation and leisure have been installing zero-depth aquatic or water play area installations. These installations are generally referred to as splash pads, spray parks, spray grounds and wet decks (hereinafter “water play area installation”). These play area installations are typically provided with water dispensing elements and structure such as, but not limited to, water canons, spray arches, ground sprays, and the like. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,194,048; 5,405,294 and 5,662,525 disclose examples of prior art water play area installations.
Typically, in prior art water play area installations, the water dispensing elements are generally configured to be activated by participants using one or several user interfaces located in the designated play area as an independent device or integrated into one or several water dispensing elements. In certain of these installations, the user interfaces are in electric communication with a system controller which controls electrically or hydraulically activated solenoid valves connected to a water distribution manifold.
In use, participants touch, engage or act upon the user interface which sends signals to the system controller which, in response, opens and/or close the valves in accordance with one or more pre-programmed sequences in order to feed the activated water dispensing elements with water.
In conventional water play area installations, especially those comprising electronic systems, the system controller, the solenoid valves and the water distribution manifold are typically installed in a building, in an underground enclosure, or in an aboveground enclosure installed at a significant distance from the water play area. This configuration is understandable since it is generally most preferable to avoid contact between water and electric and electronic systems. However, in these conventional water play area installations, since the user interfaces are usually located on the water play area, electrical wiring must still be installed between the user interfaces and the system controller.
Accordingly, conventional water play area installations require the independent installation of the user interfaces, the system controller and the water distribution manifold. Moreover, they require space for the installation of these equipments, which is not always available, and they require the installation of electrical wiring from the system controller to the activation devices, and water piping from the manifold to water dispensing elements. Hence, despite ongoing development, there is still a need for a novel water play installation which mitigates the shortcomings of the prior art.